lost girl
by EnterWittyNameHere
Summary: Sometimes God is good. Sometimes He is cruel. Sometimes He lets you live. This was the unspoken rule of the desert and Laura had to accept this before continuing to live.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own naught but that which you do not recognize.

_**I was much too far out all my life/And not waving but drowning**__. _-Stevie Smith.

Five years. Five fucking long years.

Why this occurance, one she would have thought would be as natural as breathing, had taken so long in the process was beyond her. As far as she knew, she was still relatively healthy, albeit a hell of a lot skinnier than she had been before arriving (for that was the only word her mind would allow her to attribute to her presence _here_) in the middle of no-where New Mexico. Still healthy, regardless of the fact that her lunch, a cornupocia of junk food including a package of Oreo's split with Ruby and a dry packet of instant noodles- the water pump at Gas Haven had been rather hostile that morning-sat curdled upon the sand under the hot, always hot, mid-day sun.

Laura grimaced as the sharp sweet-sour taste of bile rose once more in her throat and her stomach purged itself of all contents and then some. She coughed once, twice, and a third time before raising a shaking hand to run across her mouth, taking with it the remainders of her meal, sweat, and mucus and tears. She was vaguely aware of how vulnerable her prone figure was, spread out on hands and knees, but regardless the faint sound of footsteps barely registered a concern in her exhausted mind. She only had thought of a glass of cool water, and perhaps passing out on the couch in the room the domestic part of her mind titled the living room.

A shadow passed in front of the sun, and Laura lifted her head. A part of her, the same part of her that sometimes prowled close at night, screaming urging tearing at her conscience to run run run and never never never look back, recoiled at the sight of the man in front of her. Another part of her, one affected deeply and profoundly by near constant heat stroke and a good strong case of Stockholm Syndrome, cried out for this ragged, unkempt and thoroughly manic knight in shining amour.

"Well, don't you look like mother-fucking Moses." She said. Her tongue lit upon some lingering aftertaste hiding behind her front teeth.

Sunburned and heavily scarred, the man's brow furrowed in confusion. Her stomach gave a jolt completely unrelated to its illness, and Laura realized her moral sense had long since packed its bags and hit the hills.

"Never mind, just help me up, Lizard-boy." A bony yet surprisingly strong arm extended and an equally bony, strong hand wrapped itself around her elbow. She was hoisted her to feet with ease, only wobbling when her knees threatened to give out of their own accord. The hand tightened almost to the point of being painful, not that the girl minded.

"You alright?" The man asked, voice of gravel raking over her fevered flesh.

"Just peachy." She said. Blessed be peripheral vision, for she caught the look of mixed pride and elation that flitted across his errant face. She cracked a smile that was more or less as jagged as the man beside her.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Own nothing. No profit is being made off of this story, except proving to be exceptionally fun to write.

A/N: Hopefully the change of tense halfway through this (short) chapter doesn't confuse anyone. If it does, I'll consider making changes. It will become simpler in future chapters...I just wanted the switch for this one.

_**When you turn off the main road, you have to be prepared to see some funny houses.**_ - Stephen King.

_Five years prior._

"_Remind me why the hell I'm here?" _

_The rear right-hand door of SUV swung open, admitting a pretty, trim, and obnoxiously blonde girl into the glaring afternoon sun of the New Mexico desert. She leaned against the faded red, now a shade closer to pink, exterior and cast her brother's girlfriend of three years a glare. _

"_Jesus, Laura. If you didn't want to come, why the fuck did you?" _

_Laura, the girl in question, turned to look back at the younger girl lounging with all the ease as though she was merely at the side of the family pool rather than the dirty and dusty desert. "Gord whined. Oh, and Sarah. Fuck you."_

_Sarah, blonde hair shining impressively despite the sticky strands sticking to her cheeks and neck, flicked Laura off before returning her attention to something much more worth her time, namely her water bottle._

_Laura in turned focused her attention on the vast expanse of dirt, rock, dust, and simmering heat of her current location. Skin too pale, body too soft and feminine, features not yet harsh enough, the girl of eighteen screamed foreigner. Her home state of Oregon may as well have been a different country compared to this hostile place. She was so far away from her homestead due to her boyfriend's insistence that the family he had in Texas would be only too delighted to meet her; she who would, without a doubt in his hormonal young mind, eventually become his wife and mother to any child born in his image. Of course, this was kept privy, Gord merely commenting that since the relatives were willingly to pay to see Sarah and him, Laura might as well tag along for the experience. And hell, why not at the same time have Sarah's current flame, a red-haired youth with the facial expressions of a natural comedian, tag along as well? Yes, why not. _

_Laura had seen no true argument to counter this question, and neither apparently had Thomas, aforementioned as belonging to Sarah. Now instead of working her boring, dead-end job from nine-to-five at a local motel, Laura was, until recently, settled in the front seat of the red (pink now, really) SUV with Gord at the commanding post of driver, both attempting to be oblivious to Sarah and Thomas in the back bench seat eating face. Laura had from the very beginning of the journey maintained the frame of mind that sixteen was too young to be so fast, so serious, so needy. Of course, she conveniently ignored the fact that she had been a full year younger than this when she had met Gord. Her mind had set itself to believe that at such an age as eighteen she was fully and completely in understanding of what it meant to love and to be loved. _

In the days, months, years that would follow, Laura often mused that it was this inherit trust in everyone and everything that had led to her current allotment in the swing of things, and her traveling companions to their deaths. In the days, months, years that would follow, her guileless self would become only a souvenir of her past, one that was quickly swallowed whole by the sands of time of the desert.

The actual event was painstakingly clear, even after all this time. Even after all He had done to attempt to eradicate the event from her mind, as though if he tried hard enough Laura would simply forget. Let bygones be bygones and all that.

She had awoken briefly during the later part of the evening, when dusk was just beginning to settle herself on the horizon to wait for twilight, her ever-behind lover, to arrive. She had been dozing against the passenger side window, feet and legs, pale and soft under her light summer skirt, pulled as close to her chest as the position would allow. She had stretched, ignoring the crack and pop of her spine readjusting and shaking the numbness out of her feet.

From the stereo, Bob Dylan was convincing the lady to lay across his big brass bed. Gord had flashed her a small smile, promising to stop soon in order to let everyone work out their legs before turning off onto the side road the gas station owner had mentioned. The side road that would take them to the main interstate much faster than the blue scrawl on their map.

In the time it had taken Gord to smile, smile so that a small dimple appeared on the right side of his mouth, the SUV's thick tires had blown out and the vehicle had careened off the road only to come to stop after completing a number of complex swerves Laura didn't think it was capable of maneuvering, running head on into a large rock formation. The engine gave one last death shudder and the vehicle sat unmoving, unforgiving, forever to be another hunk of metal in a crater not too far from its death-spot.

The ensuing panic had been the usual chaos, the same kind that all travellers experienced at this point. Oh, for Laura and her friends where not the only ones subjected to this, nor was Laura ever not privy to it again.

After confirming that, yes, their car was completely and utterly useless, both Thomas and Gord had attempted to receive some sort of life-line connection on their cell phones, the formers face crumpling in a parody of grim horror that at any other time Laura would have found amusing. At that time, however, she had simply curled into herself, and willed away the chill of night that was slowly carving the fever of the sun from her skin and settling even deeper, taking residence in her very bones. Bones that ached terribly, but were nothing compared to the stabbing pains of desperation and helplessness that settled in her heart. The small cut to her cheek and the larger one that ran from the top of her forehead to between her eyes were ignored in favour of her repeating the mantra _we'll be ok. we'll be ok. we'll be ok. _

And so they had been. Until well into the night, when nothing stirred in the desert but those who could only stand the night when their imperfections and sins would not be objected to the scrutiny of the sun had come crawling to the wreckage to feast. And feasted they had. Screams had ripped through the air, as had the hoots of joy and random bursts of profanity mulled only by the sound of a series of gunshots and one solid whack of the dull end of an axe.

Laura was never sure why she of all people had been saved, if that was indeed what one would call such an existence. She was far from the most beautiful woman to travel this place, and far from the most hardy or steadfast. Perhaps it had been her unique look, her waxen skin, dark doe-like eyes, her silent scream as she looked up into the face-what a face!-of the man that would later prove to be the sole key to her survival. Perhaps, some morbid section of her mind would suggest, it had been the simple hollow click of the gun barrel that had signaled the end to his fun and the beginning of her toil. Perhaps it was her selfish determination not to have it end all like this-_please _god, no, not like _this_!-coupled with his selfish desire to have her. Perhaps her determination had surprised even him and the man, sensing the opportunity with such ease born to those similar to his nature, had seized it and refused to let it ever diminish, only grab hold and flourish under his ministrations.

The axe had come down hard on her back, landing the blow squarely just a few inches below the vulnerable part of her neck and shoulders. While the blow had hurt, had hurt terribly, it had been the resulting fall and connection her head made with the sharp, unsympathetic ground below her that had knocked Laura out cold. Men the size and texture of the desert hills had loomed over her. The blackness had seemed like a more than welcome escape.

In the recess of her mind, Bob Dylan had insisted that she was the best thing he had ever seen.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: This story is not for profit. Merely fun.

A/N: The tense in this chapter, and the chapters following most likely, is in present. Its easiest to understand and to write. :)

_**There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. Yet that will be the beginning. **_-Louis L'Amour.

Laura woke, headache blooming spectacularly behind her eyes, to find her hands and ankles strapped to the frame of a small metal bed which reminded her of old war-time hospital wards, looking for all the world like a sacrifice to some ungodly being. Her clothes remained ripped as before, the blood long since dried. Her face felt stiff, the skin stretching uncomfortable. Most noticeable was the tough, sandpaper texture of her tongue and the sore, blistered feeling in the back of her throat. Unaware of her true situation and unable at the moment to recall much of what had transpired before her presence on this bed, Laura latched on to this small, utterly human concept of thirst and held on tight. It allowed for a surprising amount of clarity and awareness over the blind panic that would set into her mind when she acknowledged that she was in fact tied up, alone, in some strange place.

Blind panic won out the first time He came, however hard she tried to fight it. In the same instant it took him to open the door to the room, the room pitifully small and grimy, she went limp in her restraints, feigning sleep or unconscious. By some iron will Laura managed not to flinch when rough, calloused fingertips traced up along her cheek bone, across to the bridge of her nose and then quivering down her nose to her bottom lip and chin. She did not open her eyes until the sound of footsteps faded out of earshot. Only then did her eyes open to take in her surroundings with more clarity than before. It was here that Laura wept selfish tears.

He came again, days later when she was beginning to think that she would not die the same death as her friends but rather waste away from lack of food and water. The door banged open in its usual haste and instead of feigning sleep like normal, Laura faced the monster that she was quite certain had come to swallow her whole. She was too tired, too distraught, and too weak to put up much of a fight. Still, her stomach clenched in fear and perspiration broke cross her brow as that old world fight-or-flight mechanism surfaced. Her squeal sounded impressively in the near empty recesses of the room when he made to step forwards.

He gave her a hard smack across the face, followed by a command to be quiet. Her restraints where untied, the man taking relish in rubbing the sore spots back to life. For her own sake, Laura did the best she could not to stare at the man's visage. It was scarred and blistered red from the anger of the sun and a rather malevolent cleft lip accompanied the uncomfortable angle of his jaw. Perhaps most unsettling about the man were his sharp blue eyes, eyes that were guarded but with a sense of acute conscience lurking behind. In the time that would follow, when Laura found her place within his world, she would often bemuse herself with the thought that his eyes where like a two-sided mirror; she would forever be in his sights, himself hidden behind her instinctual need for survival, so that all that reflected back was her own pitiful state.

They outright stared at each other for a period of time, the man's appreciating eyes roaming over the girl's form, the girl unable to tear her eyes away from him as a whole. He spoke first, gave her his name-_Lizard_-before telling her that she had better goddamn well not run. He grabbed her then, making her first true words to him nothing but a prolonged scream, and hauled her from the room. He dragged her after him, squealing and struggling, down a number of rickety stairs and through what she assumed was the rest of his house before the bone-rattling clang of the porch screen door and the first blinding ray of sunlight made her voice catch in her throat.

Oh, but it proved a bitter-sweet and wretched freedom. The day was to be nothing more than a twisted impersonation of a tour of the Test Village. Some long forgotten logical nook in her mind made the connection between this horror and the Manhattan Project, a long ago government test. This same logical, scholarly niche viewed the terrors of The Family of the Village was though through the lens of a microscope. The instinctual side of Laura, one that would prove to be much more useful in the coming days and months, continued to batter her already beaten psyche repeatedly by commanding that she run from this place and the monsters that made her their plaything. She combated this fear by repeating as many historical facts of the government's betrayal as could be remembered.

After all, we people make up horrors to cope with the true ones.

After a large woman (Big Mama, as named) had forced Laura to drink a satisfactory amount of water and even some bread that consisted mainly of mold spores and one lone fly larva, the girl was once again seized by the twisted man with the reptilian name and locked away. This pattern continued for a number of days, the man never allowing the girl to take a step of her own accord. Then once her screams and looks of fright diminished and became, not accepting, but defeated sighs and nervous glances, she was no longer forced out of the room but left to her own devices within it only to be kept company by a small, pitiful and twisted creature by the name of Ruby. Food and drink where presented to her, and Laura took them in without hesitation.

Any interaction between her and Lizard took place mainly in the wee hours of the morning when he would return from whatever place he had been skulking and she would be jolted awake by the sound of the always-present spike strip being dragged up the dusty street to be dropped by the front door until morning light. He slept with his pistol next to him, tucked away in a busted old bedside table; regardless, Laura was well aware of the destruction to be wrought by his mere hands. He also slept with her next to him.

She expected a number of horrors to be conducted when he joined her at these times, images of raped and beaten bodies of young females, reproduced into life courtesy of the evening news, flashing behind her eyes. The worst that happened for a long time was his simple insistent stroking of her long dark hair, coupled with the occasional journey down her smooth arms or back. He treated her as one would a cat, enjoying the differentiating texture of her skin to his. She was kept dressed for the most part in a flimsy nightgown that clung to her body with near same intensity as Lizard did, but was always placed beneath him. If he was to lay to slumber on his stomach, Laura was also presented on her stomach with a long and limber leg slung over her own and a gnarled arm thrown across her torso to keep her in her rightful place. More often than not, Laura fell asleep to quiet revulsion stewing in her gut as his twisted face pressed deep to the nook between her cheek and shoulder.

Until one night he returned, bloodier than usual and in a most joyful state, and took her fully and completely for himself. Afterwards, when he had withdrawn from her body, he wiped the tears from her cheeks in a parody of a lover and told her she was his.

She told him her name.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: This story is not for profit. Merely fun.

A/N: Thank-you to the few who have taken the time to review. It's always nice for a writer to hear their work is appreciated.

Also, I know the quotes at the beginning of each chapter have so far been a hit, but I have to say I may not always include one. It depends on whether I find one that suits the chapter or not.

This is one of those chapters.

**** ****

Months came and went. She liked to pass the time, endless time it seemed, imagining painting the drab walls bright yellows, mauve's, purples, blues. Anything to keep the light inside.

Flowers sprouted out of the cracks in the walls, pushed up to the invisible sun pass the ever present sand, dirt, grim, and pain and solitude. Grass grew to tickle her feet, sweet clovers to tickle her nose, buttercups to stain the underside of her now too sharp, too-starvation-prominent chin.

She liked to picture the yin-yang her grandfather had once shown her when she was a little girl, one lazy Sunday afternoon. It had been breathtaking in her mind; light and dark, two complete opposites co-existing. Everything could co-exist. She was sure of it.

Although there were times, times when Ruby came to clumsily shove pitifully tiny morsels of spoiled food under the door, times when men trapped in the bodies of monsters came to laugh at her, times when her resolve cracked and she imagined no flowers, no sun, no gentle tickles, but instead darkness, and a lonely void and all of this but nothing at the same time for all eternity; times when she liked to imagine the light edging over the dark, crushing it beneath it's silver-lined feet.

This was silly, of course, for here in the desert there only ever seemed to be light, harsh and unyielding. And the monsters, they frolic both day and night. Still, she'd watch in fascination, her eyes growing wide as her mind's eye played out a victory for the Light and the Good.

Until He came.

She had been sitting there in the corner where she liked to imagine the stream (the same one behind her childhood home) trickled by, while wild strawberries grew among. Behind her eyelids they burned a vivid red, just as red as the blood that flowed from her various and accumulating cuts, and from between her legs once a month (always once a month-Life. Her only calender in this place). She could smell them, sweet yet tart at the same time, when He entered.

The stink of danger invaded her senses.

"I'm here to talk to you, girly." His voice was deep and cold; she pictured the icy snow cap of some far away jagged and treacherous mountain peak. It was completely absurd in the circumstance.

He said his name was Jupiter, a name that tasted thick and sour and sweet on her tongue, like sucking on the end of a daisy stem. He told her to listen, and to listen good. She was in a unique position, and she shouldn't go about spoiling it with her whining. Laura listened good.

"Now," Jupiter continued with the air of a prepared speech. "M'boy Lizard's mighty fond of you. He's fought hard to keep you 'ere, and I suggest if you got any brains at all you get this, and get it fast. We ain't gonna hurt you. But you gotta help us if we help you."

Laura listened to the strange man before her with growing disquietude. Dressed in a simple attire, Jupiter looked almost normal except for the fact that he was exceptionally hairy, a long beard among the most noticeable of characteristics. She noticed that his shirt hung awkwardly against his body and she wondered, with a small shiver of terror, what was responsible for it. That feeling of terror amplified as Jupiter continued with his explanation of what was expected of her both short term and long term.

"Y-you, what?" Laura asked.

"You deaf, girl?" Jupiter said, lip lifting in a snarl.

"I heard you!" The girl snapped.

Jupiter grinned in response, "It's fair, ain't it? You live and in turn, so does this family."

"But..."

"The boy ain't touched you yet?"

Laura's faint blush was all the answer Jupiter needed. His booming, wild laugh (so at odds with his voice) filled the room until Laura was sure she would hear it linger long after he left.

"Lizard's hardly a boy anymore," Jupiter continued once he had calmed down. "Gotta be fair." He gave Laura a stern look. "You and I at an understanding?"

The girl gave a stiff nod and Jupiter left with a growl of agreement. Laura was left to ponder just what being a part of The Family entailed.

***** ****** *****

Laura had been preparing herself for yet another day of endless boredom in the bedroom when the door was kicked in. The intensity and anger behind the force hinted at the cause. In Lizard stalked, his face set in the perpetual pissy scowl he never seemed without. He raked his eyes over her briefly, before telling her to follow him. Laura did so without a second thought. After a few months of dealing with the man's temper, Laura had decided (quickly) that it was better and easier to simply do as Lizard asked, instead of fighting and risking a stinging slap or a none too gentle kick to the ribs.

He stopped her on the porch, the girl blinking at the sudden intrusion of bright sunlight, "You understood Papa?" He gave her a hard shake as though to emphasize his words.

Laura assured him she did, and before she could truly comprehend her new position, Ruby had taken her brother's place at Laura's side. The smaller girl offered Laura a grin and tugged on her hand to signal that she should follow.

The two girls wandered far, farther than Lizard had yet taken Laura. Ruby proved to be good company. She had quite the collection of small treasures from her scavenging of the wreaks left behind by the more malicious members of her family. Best of all, the girl's magpie tendencies lent itself to a small but varied collection of clothes as well. Laura happily exchanged her soiled nightgown for the more comfortable and practical cover of a deep brown house dress. Thankfully the dress had capped sleeves and hung far enough down her legs that her skin was given some reprieve from the sun.

Dressed to impress now, Ruby also showed Laura the site of Gas Haven, where Fred (whose name she later learned from Cyst, one of the older and wiser of the Family) lived and did his part to help the Family. The two peered down at the small station from a good distance, aided by the pair of binoculars Goggle, a curious creature, never went without. In a moment of distinct cruelty, Goggle pointed out the road where travellers met their fate. He smiled with relish at Laura's pained look.

Proving sweeter than Goggle was the woman formerly known as Betty Stuart, now titled Big Mama. She was a local whore who had taken up with Jupiter years before, after her own family had petered out. Although she came from stock also affected by the radioactive fallout, the only visible deformity Mama had was the fact that her head was larger than most and shockingly bald. The woman welcomed Laura into her house (shared with Jupiter and one they all called Big Brain) with surprisingly open and warm arms. Mama had near endless questions for the outsider girl, although Laura was able to detect the same natural distrust in her voice that Jupiter had reserved for his questioning. It was only halfway through her own explanation of her old life that Laura realized that Mama had been testing her. Trying the girl for any hints of rebellion, any sign of body language that would spell out trouble for The Family. Warm and comforting as the older woman proved to be, Laura understood that, as Jupiter had stated, the Family came first. And if Laura was to be a part of this family, as it surely seemed, she would have to prove herself ten times over.

Laura found herself concluding the day listening in mingled shock and interest to Big Brain and Cyst, cousins to Jupiter and half-brother's themselves due to a wandering father, as they explained life as it existed for them. Big Brain, confined to his chair day in and day out due to a grotesquely over sized cranium, repeated over and over and over and over how the bombs had rained down upon his grandfather and his family, how they had refused to give up their lives and instead took refuge in the near-by mines.

Cyst, with his shockingly soft voice and easy grasp of the English language, filled in the gaps if Big Brain became too caught up in his misery to continue in a string of consistency. Cyst himself was also confined to the Test Village, although afforded some mobility. The neck brace attached to his body caused him to move in stiff, painful movements. It was with jerky, animation that Cyst continued explaining the Family to Laura, long after Big Brain had lapsed into a silent anger and Ruby had curled herself up next to Laura's side. On a primal level, Laura was beginning to understand the Family's motives and characteristics; she did not condone it, but it would be in her best interest to attempt to forgive them, these people who were forgiving her for her upside down, outsider ways.

This was how Lizard came upon the girl later in the evening. He had traipsed in, hands and upper body bloodied , to converse briefly with Jupiter and had cast Laura a heated glance. The dim-witted Pluto, second oldest of the four children born to Jupe and Mama, took a great interest in Laura's hair. He sat down heavily, scaring Ruby from her own refuge against Laura's side, to reach out with one thick finger and wrap a strand of dark brown hair around and around. Laura kept her disgust below her skin. It was with some feeling of relief that Lizard appeared, already playing the part of saviour in her mind, to kick Pluto away.

Laura made herself scarce at this point, taking Ruby with her out back into the desert. The cooling night air caused chills to rise on her skin, but could only be half attributed to the feeling of ill contempt and disgust that coiled in her belly. She wasn't impervious to the Family's chosen method of attaining their sustenance. She was well aware of the cannibalism that took place, although thankfully she had yet to truly witness it beyond the sometimes blood-stained limbs of Lizard or other members of the clan.

Instead, she walked with Ruby, whom it seemed also looked upon this one characteristic of the Family with disdain. The pair, mismatched in experience as in looks, wandered until night fell black and Lizard appeared to take them back to the Village.

The trio passed the door to Jupe's house and Mama's voice floated to their ears, "He's right gone on her."

Giggles followed them as Lizard tightened his grasp on Laura, pushing Ruby to the side with one knee.

As tired as Laura found herself to be that night, she envied Lizard for his ability to drop off to sleep so easily. The girl found herself awake with a mind fumbling with the images of _sand broken bodies blue eyes metal raining from the sky. _


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Not written for profit. Just fun.

A/N: Thanks again for the reviews. I know this chapter is a bit short, but I don't really set out to type a certain amount of words per chapter; however many words it takes me to describe the scene(s) I want, that's how many you fine people get to read.

**** **** ****

It was difficult at the best of times to keep hygienic. Laura found herself growing more and more dispassionate about the sand and dirt and grime and heat of the desert, and wishing for her west coast home purely for the selfish reason of not breaking a sweat simply waking up in the morning. On the days when Lizard was most accompanying to her requests (usually the morning after a good fuck), Laura was allowed to make a trip to Gas Haven along with Ruby in order to fill old gasoline canisters with fresh water from the pump located there. Despite the fact that Goggle had his eye on the pair at all times, and Lizard forced Laura to take a walkie-talkie with her, the girl relished this one small freedom, almost as much as she relished the feeling of clean, cool water flushing over her skin.

Fred, owner and sole inhabitant of Gas Haven, was an anomaly to Laura (only proceeded by Lizard). He was a bitter, sour old man; however, his face would pale and his words would come out as half formed, lazy stutters whenever Laura showed her face. He was nervous around her, and Laura did nothing to discourage this. After all, it had been this man who had sent her friends to their graves and her to Lizard's bed.

Along with the use of the water pump, Laura also supplemented her diet of forged food from travellers wreaks (which was dismal at best) with food from Gas Haven. Packets of instant noodles, powered milk, sugary Cokes, and a large variety of junk foods such as Twinkies, assorted chips, and her soon favourite, Oreos (of which Ruby also partook). On the occasions when Lizard, or even Pluto or Jupiter, had the foresight to consider Laura's well being, the girl would receive a treat from some poor souls now ransacked cooler. Once Pluto, engaging in a moment of sanity, had brought her back a basket filled with fruits and a pack of ginger ale to wash it all back. And Laura, in a moment of glutton, had eaten it all with the understanding that in this heat, the apples, pears, and bananas that had been kept cool in the trailers crisper would soon rot in the unforgiving heat.

Another time, when Laura had gone for a near week with nothing on her stomach except a shared packet of liquorice with Ruby, Lizard had scavenged the carcass of a coyote and had watched Laura force it down, only giving her peace when she had finished what he considered a satisfactory amount of the near-raw meat (with some consideration, the man had cooked it, briefly, over a small fire).

Laura was forbidden to leave the Test Village unless accompanied by someone of the Family, and the very thought of her tagging along to one of the wreaks to forge for her own supplies was completely out of the question. Lizard, despite doing his best to discourage any rebellion in Laura, still did not trust the too-trusting and too-compliant girl alone. Instead, Laura was locked in Lizard's room (now their room) until the Family arrived back, supplies in tow. At this time, she would be allowed out and given the time to root through any clothes or trinkets that caught her eyes, as well as stock up on any morsel of food that may have been brought home.

Not once did Laura ever truly feel guilty for this transaction that took place between her and the Dead. She had long since determined that she was going to survive, goddammit, and if that meant doing things that would have in the past sent her mind reeling and stomach rolling, than so be it. It wasn't as if she was at the mercy of the Family's judgement; they did much worse. Even little Ruby, who did not kill or eat of human flesh, was well adjusted to surviving by means of stealing and hoarding in the most magpie of tendencies.

Once Laura had stumbled across the emancipated and dehydrated form of a small dog while wandering the desert one day. She had watched with a removed curiosity as the dog, an obvious escapee from a past victim, had struggled to stand up and remove itself from her presence. The poor beast did not get far, soon succumbing to the desert and the havoc its elements wreaked on its body. Laura had called Lizard over to her then, and asked him to put the poor thing out of its misery. He had laughed at her, mocked her and called her names, but in the end, faced with the silent treatment from Laura, had done as she desired.

At the forefront of her mind, Laura understood that the dog and herself where not all that different. She too would perish if she ever attempted to remove herself from the Test Village. And she doubted Lizard would be so compassionate to her end.

A bullet to the head seemed a rather anti climatic way to end.

**** **** ****

There were times when Laura was stricken with grief so deep and painful that all she managed to do was crumple in on herself and gasp until air returned itself to her lungs. After months in this place (closer to a year, loath as she was to admit it) Laura had yet to truly face her anguish. The desert would simply not allow it. If she did not get up in the morning to fetch water or food, then she would suffer more. If she fought Lizard, threw tantrums, or refused to speak, she was made aware of his displeasure. Grief was simply not allowed; there was no time for it.

Grief has to be faced head on. There's no other way. If one is unable to look grief in the eye, it must therefore be disregarded. Since Laura did not have time to sit down and examine her strife, it went unnoticed most of the time, to occasionally surface as a nightmare late at night or a heavy stomach as screams from the road below floated through the cracks of her locked room.

During these times, Lizard would become just as melancholy, if not more so. He appeared to take it as a personal insult if Laura moped around the Test Village. Although a full grown man, at least two decades older than Laura herself, he was prone to fits of violence and cruelty Laura had never witnessed before.

He was easily the cruelest of the Family, even compared to wizened Jupiter (Laura believed being the patriarch of the clan had given Jupiter a glance of responsibility, while Lizard remained rather ignorant), and did not hesitate to take his anger out on anyone, including Laura. She did not suffer too badly; unlike Pluto or Goggle, Laura found she was able to talk Lizard down from one of his rages if she caught on to it quick enough. She also had the advantage of being the only accessible woman in his life, and while she did not condone presenting herself to him to keep his temper at bay, if it meant going without sore ribs or a bloody lip, she did so. He took sublime pleasure, it seemed, in her face, breasts, rounded hips.

So Laura took to busying herself with life in the Test Village, with these monsters with the faces of men, if only to get a little sleep when the daylight died.


	6. Chapter 6

Diclaimer: No profit; all fun.

_**Give him enough rope and he will hang himself. - **_Charlotte Bronte.

She ran once.

Only once.

Laura had been a present figure in the Test Village for over a year. Although she was still not allowed to leave the safety of the Test Village alone, she had taken to walking the area alone, if only to have time for her thoughts. It usually resulted in her running into Cyst or Big Mama and conversing with them for as long as their time could permit. Lizard had expressed feverishly for her to stay away from the last house on the left. Laura suspected that this was where the Dead where kept until their meat, fat, sinews, bones could be utilized at a later date.

This was where Laura found herself one early morning. She had awoken to the sound of Lizard pulling on his vest, a harsh grating sound to her sleep-thick head, and his gruff command to stick to the Village for the day. Once awake, the girl had found herself bored and with little to do. Ruby had seemingly pursued the rest of the Family on a whim, and the only member left was Mama, who as per usual could be found in front of the small TV watching daytime soaps. Laura wandered close to the forbidden house without quite remembering how her feet had moved.

A discreetly arrogant voice in her mind supplied that she had been involved in the Village long enough now not to be repulsed by whatever it was that lay in wait here. A burning curiosity settled under her skin and Laura knew she would not be able to scratch that itch if she did not first attempt to quench it with knowledge.

She half expected the door to be locked tight, and so was surprised when it swung open without any hesitation. She found herself hesitating slightly on the threshold, breath caught in her throat. With the same sense of cold purpose and single-mindedness that all explorers, regardless of their travels, must experience before some worldly discovery, Laura stepped forward into the dark.

The house itself was dimmer than the rest in the Village, due to the window shutters all pulled in tight. A sharp sour stink invaded her senses, one that she recognized as having smelled on various members of the Family. A lone fly made its presence known, half-hearted attempts to escape from a nearby crack in the wall. Heart missing a beat in expectation and excitement, Laura pressed her eye up to this very crack.

A head without eyes stared back at her in a blank imitation of life. Her stomach leaped to her throat and her heart experienced palpitations. A silent scream locked in her throat, the sweet-rotten taste of fear thick on her tongue.

Just beyond this head were more grizzly sights. Bodies ripped and torn with no consideration to the natural mechanism of the human body hung from hooks in the ceiling. A number of rusty, bloodied, but undeniably sharp knives and strips of metal adorned the counter nearest the one window. A piece of shutter had rotted off and a strip of sunlight blazed on to the blood-caked floor, illuminating a lone finger with wedding band still attached.

Instinct flooded Laura's mind and kicked her ass. She was running running running before she comprehended the fact. It wasn't until she hit the invisible force field of the limit of the Test Village that her legs collapsed in exhaustion and she dropped, body convulsing in horror and adrenaline. She retched, tasting nothing but sour breath, and gulped back air as does the person who is about to drown. Laura laid there in the sand and heat until her adrenaline pumped body screamed at her to move or be driven brain sick. She collapsed again on the porch to Lizard's house where, eyes shut tight against the horrors witnessed, she dozed off and on in the heat.

For his part, Lizard knew something was wrong the moment he laid eyes on her. She stared up at him now with the same frightened expression she wore when she had first seen him in full daylight.

"Lizard-boy," She greeted with the nickname she had christened for him. He stared at her, gaze steady and guarded, in response.

"What?" Laura asked, voice thick. She hoped the man in front of her, a Goliath of sorts, did not notice.

"You alright?" It was a question he posed frequently.

"Just peachy," said Laura. She swallowed thickly, having long since decided feigning normalcy was best. "You bring me anything?"

" 'Course."

And so he had. A new dress, a sleeveless thing that was impractical but pretty nonetheless, a fiery red in colour. A small container of sweets. A new fine toothed comb for her hair, along with its matching cousin mirror. Sweet-smelling shampoo and soap, still packaged in its fine oriental wrappings. And a necklace, the same red colour as the dress, finely made and feminine. It looked odd strung from Lizard's hands, dusty and all too masculine in the desert sun, and fell heavy between the valley of her breasts. Gloves torn, frayed leather encased knuckles brushed the same path until they rested next to her newest present.

Laura felt hot and sick, body crying out for attention and comfort and mindless pleasure in light of what she had experienced in the cooler morning air. It did not matter that the same man who could cause her body to undulate and thrum with unreleased energy caused the distortion in the Dead. She followed him all to happily to his bed, where, for the first time since her arrival, she sought to teach him as he taught her in the celebration of their bodies and what they could accomplish when intimately fused together.

**** **** ****

Morning light streamed through the battered shutters of the bedroom, announcing the start of a new day. Laura shoved her head farther under the long worn and scruffy pillow and gave Lizard a nudge so as to stop him from completely rolling on top of her. She feigned her compliance and cheerfulness in the following hours, images from the previous morning occasionally flashing before her mind's eye.

It was because of this determination to restore things to their previous state that Laura found herself relaxing on the floor of Jupiter's living room, not far from Mama as she rested in her rocking chair, as though this was any other normal day.

On any given day, the small black and white television only received three channels; four if you got lucky on a clear day. Today was proving to be unseasonably hazy. Even the one channel that was usually quite clear was coming in fuzzy. It only added to the faint humming present in the air.

Mama was droning on about some divorce case she had watched the day previous, Laura nodding and grunting in agreement when she felt necessary. Ruby joined them eventually, covered in gritty sand and beaming, to say that she had found a particularly pretty ring. Laura glimpsed one brief image of the lone finger, with its long since cold wedding band, in the forefront of her mind.

Jupiter's gruff voice suddenly issued from the crackling walkie-talkie Laura had placed on the table earlier. Fred had radioed a few moments before to tell them of the small pickup truck coming their way. Five people, two adults and three children, none older than the age of fourteen. Laura's stomach squeezed its way into her throat and she became acutely aware of her own heartbeat. Images flew past her mind's eyes like the projector in a movie theatre. Still, she did not move from her spot on the floor.

Her act meant survival.

It wasn't long after this that the first faint, hollow thumps began falling on the battered tin roof above their heads. Both Mama and Ruby seemed oblivious, but Laura's ears perked at the unusual sound. It had a strangely routine consistency to it, the rhythm all too familiar to her senses. Her stomach flopped when recognition kicked in.

"Is it...is it raining?"

Mama looked away briefly from the television to regard the girl still lying prone on the floor, "We get the occasional thunderstorm. Rain too."

"It hasn't rained since I got here." Laura said.

"It rained day 'fore you got here." Ruby supplied.

"Did it?" Laura said, surprised. She didn't remember driving into any storm (although in all honestly, she didn't dwell much on the memory).

Ruby giggled and turned back to watch some vain and pointless soap opera. In it some overstuffed and over-plucked woman was shrieking at a gym-pumped man with the chin the size of Montana to give her baby back. He denied, saying the child really belongd to the woman's long lost sister. Laura was driven to her feet with the sudden desire to feel the rain on her skin.

The first cool drop to land on her skin was immensely refreshing. Laura stood there, arms outspread and mouth wide so as to catch any stray drops, feeling reborn within a matter of seconds. It had rained frequently where she had grown up. For a moment she was able to hear the rush of waves and the cry of some hungry gull in her ear. She opened her eyes at the first drop to travel the path down from the crown of her forehead to drip off the end of her nose. She tasted the fresh water, water that tasted of the far away mountains where they had formed, as it collected at the corners of her chapped and sore mouth. Something in her snapped.

Ignoring the two women still inside the house located to the rear, Laura stepped further into the road that ran through the middle of town. She walked past Cyst sitting idly on his own porch, past the window into which, had she stopped to peer in, she would have spotted Big Brain. Not once did she hesitate in her calm, purposeful gait. To anyone who had bothered to look, it would have appeared as though she were merely returning to the house she had awoken from this morning.

The scuffed toe of her running shoe touched the edge of the Village, and the fuzzy, harried feeling from the previous morning came flooding back to once again hound and snap at her heels.

She ran.

Not once did she look back until she was finally forced to stop in order to plan her way forward. Laura continued on then, ignoring the stitch in her side and the blister she could feel forming on the outside of her big toe, down a number of treacherous hills and up their mirror twins. Her feet continuously threatened to give out on her, rocks sliding beneath the soles of her shoes, adding the possibility of injury, of a sprained ankle or torn ligament, to her desperation. She jumped a small wash-out, shoes becoming water logged in the process. Her hair was quickly flattened to the side of her head, the force of the pouring rain weighing it down. Still she did not pause, feet pounding one after the other as she ran forwards.

It was just as she breached the top of a particularly jagged hill that she spotted the pickup Fred had radioed about. It was small, but handling the desert road easily.

A part of her wondered if she could reach them before the Family did.

Her feet were under the impression that, yes, she could.

To their credit, the Johnson family (residents of Long Island, as it turned out) reacted to the sudden appearance of a starved and worn looking young woman as calmly as possible.

Here and there now small pockets of sunshine where beginning to peep through the cloud cover. Laura had managed to reach the area where the truck would pass, and had yet to see any signs of Lizard and his spike strip, or indeed any other clan members. As she stood up, however, to ready herself to jump into view of the car, she caught the tell-tale flash of light reflecting off in the distance. Goggle had spotted her. Desperation bent her knees and she sprung forward into the path of the moving vehicle. Mr. Johnson, a solidly built man with a mustache that gave Yosemite Sam a run for his money, managed to miss the girl by a few feet and brought the truck to a screeching stop. Its tires were noticeably inflated still.

The girl briefly disappeared from sight in the rear view mirror, and gave the entire family a shock when she suddenly reappeared with much slamming and hammering of her palm on the front windshield.

"Please, please, please!" Laura begged, not ceasing her pounding on the glass. "Please, help me! Help me!"

"Get back!" Mr. Johnson (ironically named Sam, as Laura later learned). "Get back, and I'll crack the window."

It was through a bare inch of space that Laura convinced the family to open their arms and car door and welcome her to travel with her. Wet hair plastered to her dirty face, clothes torn, she was quite the sight. She told them her car had crashed further up the road, up where the road suddenly and without a doubt dropped off into a crater. She had been walking for a good day or so, she told them, and was in rough shape, yes, but was OK. OK and eternally grateful.

Mrs. Johnson, a pretty, dark haired thing, commented that she was lucky. Who knew what was out there in the desert, prowling around. Besides which, the weather was proving rather frightful. Who had ever heard of thunder and lightening and pouring rain in the desert?

Laura agreed. She then told them to turn around and go back to the main road. You couldn't drive around this crater, it was too large. It would be easier, yes much easier, to simply turn around and take the road that was on the map. The blue scrawl, that was the one. Sam Johnson (Yosemite, to Laura) agreed that it would be silly to continue down a road that did not exist. And so it was with a mounting sense of relief that Laura dozed off, packed into the back seat with the three Johnson children, on her way back to civilization.

Or so it seemed until the rumbling truck came to a slow stop around dusk and Laura lifted her head to stare at the all to familiar sign of Gas Haven through rain streaked windows. Gas would be needed in order for the family and their impromptu guest to continue.

Laura moaned and sank out of sight as Fred came lumbering out of his station. He seemed only mildly interested to hear of the Johnson's change in plans, but flushed and stuttered when he caught sight of Laura hunched in the rear seat. She gave him a withering look. Deep down, Laura knew she was fucked.

This was confirmed a few miles down the main road. The dark of night was pressing in on the windows of the pickup, and with Gas Haven far behind them, Laura was just beginning to allow herself to relax once more. The pickup gave a mighty lurch as the all too familiar hissing and squeal of punctured tires reached the girl's ears.

Sam Johnson managed to keep the truck steady and coasted to a stop, the axle giving a great groan in protest as it came to rest slightly off to the side of the road. The dirt was well packed and well travelled here, no rocks to prove any such danger to tires.

Laura wrenched open her door and stumbled out into the chilly night air. It had stopped raining by this point, and the sand beneath her feet showed the clear impression of Sam Johnson's steps as he checked the collective damage to the family vehicle. Laura found the clear impression of a spike strip not five yards to the rear of the truck. She sank to her knees and sobbed into her hands, alarming the youngest of the children. The comforting hand of Mrs. Johnson squeezed her shoulder gently.

"I'm sorry," Laura managed to choke around the fear and panic that had settled on her tongue.

"It's alright. We'll just have the tires changed nice and quick and we'll be back on our way before you know it." Mrs. Johnson, dark and pretty even in the night air, cooed.

Laura laughed, shrill and wild. Oh yes, she'd be back on her way in no time.

Dark and pretty Mrs. Johnson had her head smashed open against the hood of the truck. (Yosemite) Sam Johnson was shot repeatedly, even long after his body gave one last shudder. The children were rounded up, courtesy of Pluto, and shot execution style. Their small bodies had lain before Laura, eyes open and blank and unbearably accusing.

"I'm sorry," Laura managed to choke around the fear and panic that had settled on her tongue.

Lizard was far from impressed.

She received a blow to the temple from the butt of his semiautomatic, and a number of solid kicks to her torso, and one to her neck, that sent her sprawling to the ground. He seethed over her as she sputtered in pain and the Family around them harvested the carnage. They purposefully ignored the couple.

"What the hell's wrong wit' you?" Lizard roared, delivering a solid smack to her face.

Laura spat blood in response.

"Well!" Another kick to her already bruised ribs. "Where you think you goin'?"

"Let me go!" She yelled, voice box already torn and sore from screaming. "I want to leave, you fucker!"

Lizard laughed, a low rumble, and twisted her head at an uncomfortable angle, "You ain't leavin', 'less I tell you. You get me?"

"Please...please, Lizard, please..." Laura begged, blood dripping steadily from a torn lip.

"_Please...please, Lizard, please..._" The man mocked. From some far off place, Jupiter laughed. "You ain't leavin' Laura. I'll kill you 'fore that happens."

"Fuck you!" She spat.

He grabbed her painfully then, hoisted her up by the armpits and threw her against the hood of the pickup. The blood and bone and grey matter that had issued from dark and pretty Mrs. Johnson's head stained the back of Laura's shirt. Hands pined behind her back by one frightfully strong hand, Lizard proceeded to take her for the first time standing upright. She had screamed and struggled, and once caught Pluto's torn gaze looking at her in confusion, before the pain and humiliation became too much and she shut her eyes to everything. Lizard bit into her so hard the imprint of the pickups grill stood to attention on the back of her legs and flakes of paint came off in the material of her shirt. Dirty nails bit into the skin of her thighs, sun burnt and sore after all this time, leaving crescent moon summaries behind. He finished with a grunt and dropped her unceremoniously to the ground.

Laura heaved, coughing up mostly snot and tears. She tugged the hem of her shirt down to cover what was left of her stolen humility, ignoring her skirt that lay ripped and torn around her hips. The clicking sound of a gun barrel settling into place jolted her head up. Jupiter was staring down at her as though she was something slimy and dank found in the bowels of the mines.

"No!" Lizard snapped.

Jupiter looked at his eldest son, "What you say, boy?"

"I said, no!"

The patriarch laughed, the same wild and deep sound Laura had found so disconcerting before, "You're right gone on her!"

Lizard snarled at his father until the elder backed off, the amused expression still evident on his wild and hairy face. Laura watched the exchange with growing confusion, face wet with tears and sweat.

"C'mon Pluto, let's get back 'fore your mama start fussin'." Jupiter threw Lizard a meaningful look. "Don' fuck up."

Lizard rounded on the girl as soon as his father and brother had disappeared from sight over the crest of the nearest hill. Laura's eyes darted to the ground where she criticized the muddy sand oozing beneath her hands. It wasn't until the rough pad of one thumb brushed the wetness from her cheek did Laura realize she was still crying.

"Look at me." He eased her head up. "Look at me, c'mon, look at me."

She lashed out with both hands, catching him off guard and successfully causing him to fall to the ground with a grunt of surprise.

"Fuck you!" She screamed. "H-how dare you! I fucking hate you! I fucking hate this place, I h-hate y-you!" Her anguished cries echoed impressively even in her own ears.

Lizard stared at her, nearly the same size in stature from his position on the ground. His rough and torn lip lifted in a growl, "I thought you understood. Jupe explained, didn' he?"

Laura gave a sob, body collapsing in. The man continued in the same vein, "You understand now, huh? You live, we live."

"You fucking...you just fucking...y-you..." Laura began crying anew.

"Use the brain in that pretty lil' head of yours next time."

She was crying too hard at this point to fight him much when he reached out to draw her to him. Instead, she tucked her head to rest beneath his chin and hated herself for drawing comfort in the feeling of his rough and bony chest next to her cheek. He fingered the necklace, still in its newest resting place, fondly.

"Poor lil' lost girl." He mocked even as he drew her closer, relishing in her supple young flesh.


	7. Chapter 7

Dislaimer: No profit; all fun.

_**Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight. **_- Phyllis Diller

Sometimes God is good. Sometimes He is cruel. Sometimes He lets you live. This was the unspoken rule of the desert and Laura had to accept this before continuing to live.

Laura's life mostly did not change much after The Incident, and the resulting realization (one that had knocked her off her feet). Big Mama treated her perhaps a bit more coolly than before, but soon the pair reconnected over their appreciation of the Mecca of all day-time television programs: _Divorce Court_. Ruby was prone to sneaking glances at the girl, as though worried Laura would up and off suddenly again.

Most annoying of all, Jupiter had taken to regarding Laura as he always had, except now she was subject to sly, knowing glances and smug smirks whenever Lizard was not around. Laura, who had been expecting something more along the lines of coldness or the cruelty she had glimpsed back at the Johnson's wreak, took the clan elder's odd response in stride.

Lizard had the most peculiar response; instead of acting in his normal capacity of cruelty, the man instead took to the task of dogging Laura's every step. She had expected to be locked in their room again, left for days to think of her mistake amid growing hunger pains and never ending thirst, but none of this took place. Instead, the girl went everywhere with the man. If it meant her sitting in the hot afternoon sun while he scouted for coyotes or a rare hare, then so be it. If it meant she was to shine his ever-present pistol while he tended to his spike strip or other assorted arsenal, then so be it.

The only place Lizard did not let her follow was to the Last House on the Left (as Laura had rationally titled it). She was made to wait on the porch of Cyst's house, perhaps talking aimlessly with the man, or entertaining Pluto by tracing images into the sand at their feet, while Lizard hacked, chopped, and swore, rather magnificently, in the background.

It was this that made Laura realize that in a cruel twist of fate, God (He who now barely resembled the deity studied once upon a time in Sunday school, but instead a glorified Darwin) had allowed her to live. And He had no intention of taking her for Himself. She belonged to the desert now, and to the same extent, Lizard as well. She was here until the sand and heat consumed her entirely. Until that time, she was to be present here, as in the belly of some great beast without the comforting aid of digestive acid to corrode the meat and flesh from her bones all the more faster; only time and sand and the man with the reptilian name.

It was far from the Utopia she had always secretly desired, but the dysfunction proved a fruitful distraction.

**** **** ****

The girl sometimes did things that confused Lizard. She did not act like Ruby, his one and only sister, shy and quiet and simpering before his temper. No, Laura had a mouth and opinions, and could curse and holler with the best of them. She did not act like Mama, who nested and offered unchanging comfort in a place that was forever changing just below the surface of the sand and rocks, and who sat and sat and sat. Laura did not once show any sign of maternal affection (she treated Ruby like an equal, more or less) and she grew restless if forced to wait still for too long a period.

Laura, dark eyed and pretty, so _very_ pretty, screamed foreigner, outsider, danger. No, she was not capable of causing much bodily harm, did not possess the physical strength, but was danger nonetheless. Lizard was aware of the fact that he could harm her, destroy her, absolutely wreak her, but she was a constant antagonist to his mind.

She was the type of woman who did not give a damn about what you drove, or how much money you had, or even much about your looks; not that Lizard could offer much in any of these areas. This was what made her so damn dangerous. The girl got inside your head, made you brain sick; all the while pulling the puppet strings and messing with you. She did not simper before your temper, but gave you a look and a smile that before long had you longing to wear her like a second skin; and when you did, she would stare up at you, dark eyes wide and wild, back arched in the most delicious of ways, and smile like the cat before the canary. A man could tower over a woman like that, give off the impression of the ever constant King of His Domain, and all the while she'd stand behind him, how-do-you-do and all smiles, and be pulling those strings to make him dance.

You never did get a woman like that out of your head. That was part of her fun, watching as you crested the hill she was standing on, only to drop out of sight on the other side, leaving you gasping for air and scratching your head. She lingered in your mind, festering and growing.

This is what saved Laura. Lizard had watched her, had eyes only for her from the moment that SUV she had come riding in on had its tires blown out, courtesy of him. He observed her movements, her body language (had taken great interest in her body, soft and curvy, and so utterly tempting), and felt his desire to feast of her meat and blood give way to an entirely new desire to feast on her flesh and gorge himself on her body in the most intimate and natural of ways. The spark of defiance, of selfish determination, of Life he caught in her eyes as he prowled over her, like the Lion before the Lamb, had caught his attention, tethered into his skin like a hook and embedded itself there until it became too painful to bare, and the feel of her skin was the only relief.

He had recognized the hint of chaos that slumbered just beneath her skin, the shadow of danger and darkness behind her eyes, had recognized it in himself long ago, and wanted this stranger- still so familiar- this girl to see it reflected in him and want him just as heatedly.

She was dangerous to the mind, this Outsider, and Papa Jupiter had been right to warn Lizard. Never before had any outsider woman been kept in the Village, happy and healthy. Other times, they were killed before anything could come from breeding with them, their desire for escape consuming them in animalistic tendency until all logic fled their minds and they shrank, screaming and bloody, in the face of Death. Hades' clan, one of Jupiter's brothers who inhabited the far mines, attempted to rectify this by binding their breeders down; Lizard had done so with Laura, this was true, but seeing her supine body stretched and lax had been too much of a temptation and so he had limited himself to this vision. Regardless, women from Hades' mines escaped from time to time, and none made it far.

Jupiter had told his eldest son all this, and warned him that if, for some unknown reason, Laura did survive long enough to adjust to the Test Village and her inhabitants, that only meant she would be more tempted to flee in the long run.

He had been pleasantly surprised when she took to his attention so easily. He did not know of her own confusion at his actions, his demented affection; only that perhaps he had read her wrong, as Papa Jupe had suggested.

But Lizard had fought for her, knowing he could make her stay (force was a skill of his). It was expected that she would birth Lizard a number of children. Any child that came from their union would be strong and more than vital to the continuation of the Family. If she lived, so too would the Family.

The girl took easily to this, after all.

He had been surprised, therefore, when she had bolted. Less surprised at how far she made it, loathe as he was to admit it, for he had recognized this ability in her after all, but surprised in the act itself. It told him she was scared and weak, two traits Lizard never would have considered in the girl. So he took to coddling her, in his own way, playing the part of jail warden and saviour and protector. He would build her up again, until she matched him in his fierceness and dedication to destruction, a perfect Eve to his manic Adam, except instead of eating of the apple, they would dine upon carnage and survival of the fittest and all that.

When Laura had run it seemed that Jupiter was to be proven correct after all. Her apparent betrayal had stung deep, and it was with equal mixed parts of anger and embarrassment that Lizard had forced himself upon her, hurting her body and mind as equally as he had felt she had done to him. He had sensed her hurt, had tasted her disgust thick on the air as she had curled next to him on the sandy road, pressing herself to him as though to become part of him and only hurt as he did. His anger had evaporated instantly once the presence of his father had gone. He had been faced then with the broken figure of the girl he was becoming much too attached to. Although his blood-lust had called for him to continue his ministrations, to break her, make her bleed, make her scream (_faster, harder, deeper)_, he had simply quenched this basic thirst with the feeling of her skin, as he had done before.

She had returned with him then, back to the Test Village, and rather than simpering and cowering before him, had turned her back to him and spent most of the remaining night with Ruby. Never before had the man been subject to the mind games of a woman; her distant attitude and silent fuming had intrigued him as much as it had infuriated him. Then she broke this silent arrangement to argue him against his constant shadowing and aroused his desire for her to a whole new level. Hands on hips, eyes narrowed in displeasure, her sharp words and hard tone had cut to his every core, perhaps not in the way she had intended, and so he became aware for the first time that she was dangerous.

The return of her hardy disposition had signaled the beginning of her true acceptance into the Family. Jupiter was proven wrong in his assumptions a few weeks after The Incident, and Lizard once again found reason to believe in his little Eve.

A coyote had wandered too close to the Village for comfort, one early morning. It had been a mean thing, long driven mad by near-starvation and the constant battle warred against its surroundings. It was small, most likely a lucky runt that had somehow survived long enough to become accustomed to fighting its way through life. Normally these animals stuck close to Hades' mines, where the clan left behind the remains of their victims to rot in the sun, the bones bleaching. The coyotes had easy access to this at the mines, and never wandered far.

This one came into the Village regardless, apparently intent on ignoring the unspoken agreement between the Family and the beasts of the desert, and gave Ruby one hell of a scare. Jupiter had given Lizard orders to kill it, but the man only managed a quick shot that caught the animal in the forearm. It had bared its teeth, hackles raised as Lizard sought it out. The beast, limping and (rightly so) pissed off, had disappeared quick as could be around one corner of a house, and Lizard again came upon it, only this time Ruby came upon it as well. Its mad eyes had focused on the younger girl. It had advanced then, backing Ruby into a makeshift corner between house and an old rotted car, perhaps planning on taking an eye for an eye, when a sole gunshot rang out and the beast dropped where it stood. Both Lizard and Ruby looked up (the latter with a cry of thanks) to see Laura holding the Colt.45 that belonged to Goggle, the barrel still cocked towards the beast.

"S'pose we can't eat it, huh?" The girl had said dismissively.

Although Lizard had at first thought this an act, the girl's movements seemed to be natural, too real and too solid to be fake. He had called her a lucky shot in jest, and she had called him a fucking prick, a smile playing about her lips. After Ruby had given her heroine a brief but tight hug, Lizard had taken Laura out to the small clay ledge a few miles south of the Village in order to teach her how to shoot properly, something he deemed absolutely necessary if the shooting of the coyote was anything to go on.

Standing squarely behind her, he had shown her how to position her arms and hands, spread her feet to a steady stance with a prop from his knee, and had not been able to stop himself from grinning into her hair as she squeezed the trigger again and again.

To the girl, who had come to a startling realization as to her position within the Family much the same as her partner had moments earlier, the gesture had seemed irrationally romantic. Some girlish part of Laura (that ought not to have survived for so long), relished in his strong and commanding presence, while the organic part of her-the part Lizard had called dangerous-wondered idly that, if she pulled the right string, what else those strong hands would tease besides the trigger of a gun. It was with doleful eyes and a purred "Lizard-boy" that she found her answer.

They had stumbled into his bed, a flurry of limbs, and took to alternating between clumsy kisses (Lizard's torn lip may have been slightly off-putting, but he did not lack in conviction) and nipping at each other (She to the back of his ear, where the skin was mostly untouched and unblemished; He to the soft skin now stretched across ribs, and again to the inside of her thigh). Once, towards the end of their tumble, she had nudged him with her leg, successfully rolling him on to his back. If he had been taken aback, it had quickly disappeared as his hands filled with her breasts and her hips rolled against his in an an oh-so-very utterly satisfying way.

After, she laughed as she lounged in his arms, eyes burning in the dim twilight, firmly imprinting herself as a constant point in his life thereafter.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: No profit; all fun.

A/N: Sorry for the wait on this one. I have a number of chapters already written up, I just have to get around to editing them and then posting them to the website. Life got busy on me, real fast.

Enjoy anyway.

**** **** ****

The blue sky stretched endlessly, a few clouds scattered here and there. Below, the burnt orange hills reached their scraggly fingers heaven wards, as though desperately attempting to touch the sky above. All this, and nothing at the same time, for as far as the eye could see. Nothing else.

"I hate the fucking desert." Laura muttered.

"Shut up," The man beside her snapped.

"I hate the fucking desert. I hate the sand, I hate the heat, I hate everything in the desert." The girl continued, ignoring the man's glares. "I really fucking hate the desert."

"Shut up."

"I miss the ocean." Laura pressed on. She glanced at Lizard's still body next to her. They were perched atop a rather unforgiving and jagged cliff. A few miles away, the just barely recognizable outline of a vehicle was visible.

"Quit bein' stupid."

"I ain't being stupid." Oh, how her English had suffered here. "I'm just saying."

"Quit just sayin', then."

"Fuck you, Lizard-boy."

He turned to face her fully then, smirking, "You dumb, talkin' to a man like me like that." His voice held the promise of more crude intentions.

"Yeah, well, after hearing a man like you moan my name, I ain't so afraid of you anymore Lizard-boy." Laura said dryly, arching a mocking brow.

He stared at her for a moment, brows knit together in slight confusion, before he became so overcome by a fit of laughter that his breathing soon came in short gasps, tears in the corners of his eyes.

"Something funny?" She grinned despite herself, watching in amusement as he attempted to collect himself.

"Ought'a watch that sass." He grinned back, torn lip riding high.

"Ain't sass, Lizard, it's the truth."

He gave a snarl, lunging at her and drawing her beneath him, causing her to squeal in delight. They mock tussled for a while, before coming to a rest a few feet from where they had been originally. Arms pinned down, Laura breathed deep, a few errant giggles escaping her from time to time. He rested against her neck, her heart beat sounding in his ear, hips cradled against hers. Laura felt him press closer, torn lip and teeth knocking against her throat. She was just drawing her leg suggestively up his when the walkie-talkie strapped to Lizard's hip crackled to life.

"Get down into position." Came Jupiter's rough voice faintly.

Lizard replied and stood up, dragging Laura up to stand with him.

"C'mon then," He gave her rump a slight slap. She stared after him as he started forwards.

"What?"

He turned to face her, "You comin' wit' me."

"What?" Laura frowned. "Since when?"

"Since now. Hurry up." Sensing her hesitation, Lizard grabbed her by the hand and dragged her after him like an errant toddler.

Laura's heart was beating at an alarming rate. Never before had she been allowed to witness a killing, unless she counted her friends (something she was not inclined to do). Now it seemed she was not only going to witness one, she was going to assist.

"You got your gun?" Lizard asked.

"Yeah..." Laura swallowed thickly. She could see Goggle's figure not far up ahead, perched haphazardly as always, still and watching. "Lizard, I...I ain't going to..."

"Papa thinks its 'bout time. You can shoot now."

This was true, but did not soothe the ill feelings stirring in Laura's belly. Yes, she had long wanted to fit into the Family, to truly be accepted, but doubt edged itself to the forefront of her mind. She wasn't sure if she would be able to squeeze the trigger when the time came. Coyotes and hares were completely different compared to human beings.

Any more objections the girl had were extinguished when the pair reached Goggle. He pointed out the vehicle's path silently, sneering at Laura with his lip-less mouth. Once again Lizard grabbed Laura by the hand and led her onwards. They got in closer to the car, and the man suddenly let go of her hand, made a shushing gesture and handed her one end of his spike strip. She stared at the metal strip in her hand as Lizard darted across the road, successfully disappearing from view. She hunkered down on her end, belly pressed flat to the dirt, pulse sounding loudly in her ears.

She couldn't believe she was about to do this; surely, there was now a place for her in the very depths of Hell.

Instinctively, Laura pressed herself closer to the ground as the car moved steadily closer. Suddenly, the spike strip turned in her hand, cutting her palm slightly. She did not notice, for at the moment her attention was focused solely on the vehicle. All four tires blew out the moment the car passed over the strip; the vehicle careened wildly for a short distance, before it came to rest at a ninety degree angle to the road. The front doors burst open, and two adults, one male and the other a female flew out and to the front of the car to inspect the damage. In her hand, the spike strip stirred and she dropped it, watching as it was whisked out of sight.  
The couple, both in their mid-twenties Laura could see now, were too interested in their situation to catch sight of Lizard as he once again darted back to Laura's side.  
Again he shushed her, pushing her back until she was completely hidden behind a large rock formation.

"Your gun?" He asked.

Laura pulled the revolver from her hip and Lizard checked it rather professionally to make sure it was loaded and the safety was off.

"Wait 'til I call you." He grinned at her one last time before once again disappearing from her view. Laura suspected there was a section of old mine around to aid his movements.

It was with an uneasy gut that Laura realized they were about to attempt a day-light killing. Such events usually took place at night, and now the Family had little to hide them as they attempted to get closer to the wreck.

It became apparent to Laura soon after that the normal sneak-attack was not what was planned.

From her vantage point behind a large boulder, Laura watched as Lizard appeared, and then disappeared from view briefly, only to pop back into view closer to the car, skittering along the ground looking for all the world like the creature of his namesake running across the sand. He finally settled himself behind a large patch of barren bramble. Out of nowhere, Pluto stalked closer, a grin plastered to his face. He was carrying his large pick axe, a rifle strung across his back.

Understandably, this proved just the distraction the couple needed to take their minds off their wrecked car.

Never before had Laura seen such destruction. The killing of the Johnson family had been nearly merciful compared to the couple before her now. Of her friends' demise, she had seen and heard little. Now, she watched as Pluto drove his pick axe through the top of the man's skull, blood flying everywhere. It was then driven into his torso, where it was used to hoist the man up into the air so Pluto could slam the body into the ground over and over. The woman fared only slightly better. She got a lucky five second start on the hulking mutant, not yet having run into Lizard.

Said man jumped cleanly over the car to land in front of the woman. Laura did not blame her for screaming. Lizard aimed a lazy shot as the woman darted away, crying so hard now that her breathing was painfully laboured. He managed to nick her in the heel, and images of the mad coyote she had brought down flashed in front of Laura's mind's eye. It was then that Lizard called her to him.

The woman, bleeding heavily from her wounded foot, gaped as Laura moved into sight. Her eyes rolled in confusion, but instinct kicked in and she continued to attempt to move. She managed to gain her feet as Laura gained Lizard's side.

"Git after her, then." Lizard laughed, as they both watched the woman hobble away.

Laura started in, but Lizard shushed her yet again, and told her in a voice that left little to be said that she had better move her ass.

It was one of the most pitiful things Laura had ever witnessed. The woman, who had the slim and tanned body of a Southern California local, was barely able to scream when she caught sight of Laura calmly walking after her. She made a surprising amount of distance, only because Laura was using the time as an excuse to build her confidence. Finally, her good foot caught on an upturned root and the woman tumbled back to the ground, and there she stayed. She looked up at Laura, blue eyes wild and questioning, her stylishly bobbed blonde hair fizzy in the humidity and stained slightly by the dust, and mouthed wordlessly. Behind them, Laura could hear Lizard and Pluto laughing and making catcalls.

Laura swallowed past the dry sensation in the back of her throat and leveled her gun. She took the slightest moment to collect her self, her left hand clenching in on its empty self, and pulled the trigger. She caught the woman in the chest once, twice, three times. The woman, blonde bob and blue eyes, sputtered and gasped, blood trickling out of her mouth. Laura leveled her gun for the final time, and this time clipped the woman in the head. Brain matter and bone and blood (_so much blood!_) splattered the ground, and Laura was faintly aware of someone whimpering, sounding just under the rush of blood against her eardrums. It wasn't until Lizard touched her shoulder that she realized it was her making the pitiful sounds, and she immediately bit down on the inside of her cheek to stifle them.

Pluto moved forward, gamboling and chortling in apparent glee, as Lizard reached out and traced over Laura's cheek bone in a moment of fondness. Laura made herself watch as Pluto dragged both bodies away and hitched them to the back of a small mine wagon. What had seemed like an entire lifetime had taken the three of them no more than half an hour.

"Good girl," Lizard crooned, surprisingly soft, in her ear. He took her hand then, and gave it a squeeze. Laura hissed in pain, and Lizard investigated the cause, finding her split palm.

"The hell happened?" He asked.

"Your damn spike strip, that's what happened," Laura replied, eyes never leaving Pluto's hulking figure as he continued back towards the Village. He rounded a small hill and Laura finally saw the gaping mouth of the mine that undoubtedly would offer a shortcut back to the Test Village.

She gave another hiss of pain as something thick and moist dragged itself across her cut palm; Lizard was cleaning it, trailing his tongue across the wound, and she had not noticed until that moment. He ripped off a strip of clothing, which looked none too clean in Laura's opinion, and wrapped her hand tightly. He seemed satisfied with his impromptu medical procedure and cast her a lazy grin.

"Good girl," He said again, arm wrapping around her shoulders. He pressed against her slightly in order to start her forward.

Together, they followed Pluto through the mines, Laura's stomach rolling and her heart soaring in a odd sense of elation.

Jupiter seemed just as pleased as Lizard was when he heard of how Laura had acted. He gave her a searching look, as though x-raying her for signs of distress, and she met his gaze coolly.

"Well, well." He said. "Guess you can stick 'round after all."

The clan patriarch had chuckled at the girl's bemused expression, ignoring Lizard's frown all together. The men left then to see to the bodies, Lizard parting only after pressing a rather clumsy and rough kiss to Laura's forehead.

Laura only realized she was grinning after she caught sight of her own reflection in the black television screen.

For days after her first successful kill, Laura found herself even more integrated into the Family. Cyst and Big Brain seemed to never tire of hearing her tell the tale over and over again; on occasion when Mama would come to Big Brain's room in order to feed the man, she too would sit and listen. Goggle gained a grudging acceptance of the girl. He watched her just as intently as before, only silent. No more did he attempt to frighten her, nor did he tease or mock her.

Pluto, who had been friendly from the very beginning, seemed to take this occurrence as an excuse to tail Laura wherever she went. The girl found this rather amusing; he was slow witted and only able to communicate in the most basic of words, but he was a comforting presence and never seemed to tire of attempting to get her to roughhouse with him, an idea Lizard quickly put to end. In compromise, Laura developed a sort of tag game, in which she would suddenly dart off on him if he was trailing her, and he would lope after her, giggling and yelling in glee. He never actually grabbed her, only yelled her name if he got close enough to deem her captured and Laura would stop and commend him for the good chase. It was childish, so much so that even Ruby did not join in, but it was a welcome reprieve from the boredom that settled when Lizard was not around. Once they finished their game, Pluto seemed all too happy to simply listen to her, as she talked to him as though he was of equal intelligence.

Even Jupiter showed signs of improvement. While Laura highly doubted he would ever be a true father-figure to her, she was grateful when he quit throwing side remarks in her face. He even commended the girl on her shot once he had seen the corpse of the blue eyed woman.

The only family member that seemed distraught in Laura's sudden conversion was Ruby. Although Laura told the younger girl repeatedly that this did not change anything, Ruby took the incident as a sign that Laura was changing. In a way, Laura knew the girl was right; she was, after all, changing. It would be silly to argue that she wasn't. However, Laura did not hold it as a bad thing, as Ruby did. In the end, Laura gave Ruby her space, spending more time with Pluto, and eventually the girl came around, albeit hesitantly, to ask if Laura would like to see the trinkets she had pulled from the couple's car.

Laura's relationship with Lizard took on a new view. Before, he had been a near constant figure in her daily routine, a pressing and commanding shadow. After the killing, he appeared all too happy to give her breathing room. He continued to encourage the development of her skills in both use of a gun and the large bowie hunting knife he sometimes carried with him. He took her clumsiness, something that had before driven him to anger, as an endearment. Their relationship was healthy and strong (something Lizard took pride in, for he had after all been able to prove his father wrong). They became less of a pair and more of an entity, entirely whole but separate unto themselves. The girl, though far from being anywhere like the killing machine the Family formed, was coming into her own, her survival cinched tighter as the days passed.

Their sex life certainly did not suffer either. Laura was never left wanting for anything now, least of all pleasure. She mused that it took a forty-something year old man (a murder, a cannibal, a monster) to make her flush and shiver in anticipation whereas the boys from her youth, Gord included, had often left her disappointed. Sometimes she walked around as though in a constant state of need, feeling hot and sick, until she stumbled across Lizard and managed to tempt him away (not that the man ever needed much persuasion). His battered and scarred body molded to hers perfectly, his faults and mishapped form only endearing him to her more. She supposed a healthy dose of Stockholm Syndrome did not hurt either.

Laura supposed this was how newly converted Baptists must feel, as they breached the baptismal waters and saw the world for the first time through saved eyes.

The romantic at heart passed the seamless days and nights by comparing her new life to that which the Greek goddess Persephone must have experienced at the hands of Hades when he kidnapped her and stole her away to his Underworld kingdom. Laura abhorred the thought of anything cliche, and yet could never quite find another way of drawing comparison.  
Once upon amusing herself with this thought, she had the startling wonder if her own mother was searching the Earth for her, just as Demeter had done for her daughter. She had never given the idea much thought, even in all her time spent locked inside. Laura supposed she was classified as a missing person, perhaps a 'cold case' now; after all, she had been with the Family now for just over two years, and she doubted that the police had much to go on. Teenagers disappeared all the time, and with no new evidence or witnesses coming forward, the police were likely to turn their attention to fresher cases. She at least hoped her old family (she thought this without any hesitation, something that startled her only briefly) had given her a nice grave plot, even if it was to be empty.

Her new family, the desert Family, was her only concern now. And she felt little guilt in this.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Not mine. Remember?

A/N: I can explain my absence, or I can let you read. I think I'll go with the latter.

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Laura had a deep and personal love affair with Elvis Presley. One of her earliest (and arguably, happiest) memories of her father was dancing with him, her perched on his feet as he twirled her around the ground level rec room in her old family's first house. The gravelly sound of her grandfather's old record player scratching in the background had always been of immeasurable comfort in times of turmoil in her younger years.

It was therefore with immense happiness that Laura found herself presented with the old record player from Lizard. It had been Jupiter's father's once upon a time, and she was given free reign of it and the old collection of records. It was a stroke of luck that the old-timer apparently had also had a soft spot for the King of Rock n' Roll.

The days and nights were filled with the constant croon of the King's deep, melodious voice; Laura often joining in, creating an odd chorus line. This ounce of familiarity offered the girl even more strength, even if it did mean she strained her voice attempting to sing along. It was to this that Laura taught little Ruby how to swing dance, as Laura had often seen her grandparents, and to which Lizard and her often fucked. Later, a mixed concoction of melody would become the lullaby she would sing to her child.

Indeed, Lizard often used the chorus of _Don't Be Cruel _as a ploy to get Laura to sleep with him when she otherwise would have rolled away and ignored him. It was ironic and fallible, his unorthodox crooning. Often his slight off-key and deep rumble of "don't be cruel to a heart that's true," was followed with a suggestive caress and, once, acted as warning before he threw her, none too gently, against the wall of an empty house and had her.

Sometimes, if the man was in a particularly good mood, he would dance with her himself, proving a much better partner than little Ruby, although he was clumsy compared to her memory of her father's graceful movements. His hands would settle on her hips, hips that swung and rocked tantalizingly so to the steady beat, and she would find herself pressed as close to him as possible.

Laura realized on one such occasion that she was utterly, royally fucked; she had fallen for him, had fallen hard, despite common sense telling her that after all he had done, all he had put her through, her feelings where wrong, sick, demented, insane. She was loath to admit so, but upon questioning herself during a bit of late-night soul searching (as women are inclined to do), found she truthfully loved him. She kept this to herself, regardless.

**** **** ****

Not long after Laura marked three years of living in the Test Village, Big Mama fell pregnant. The Family had celebrated upon hearing the news, for any sign of new life joining their numbers was good. It did, however, put a fresh strain on Laura.

She was no fool. After three years of surviving in the desert, when killing and fucking became as normal as breathing, she was well aware of what her true purpose was in the Village. She was not here to play the part of wife to Lizard, certainly not, she was here to provide him with children. The fact that Mama became pregnant before Laura did was a concern.

Laura took to helping Mama in the following months, seeing to her needs and helping around the house and kitchen when the woman, already large, became too swollen with child to move much. The woman was grateful for it, though she was the only one it seemed. Jupiter had abruptly returned to his sour demeanour when interacting with Laura, and Lizard took to bedding her as frequently as possible as though determined that Laura should play out her part as soon as possible.

Laura was lying in bed one night, when the voices of Jupiter and Lizard reached her ears. They where in the room just below the bedroom, and the walls and indeed even the floor were rather thin, so she was able to hear every syllable.

"I'm startin' to wonder if there's somethin' wrong wit' that girl of yours, boy."

"Ain't nothin' wrong with Laura," Lizard snapped, and Laura felt a rush of affection towards the man.

"She ain't given you a baby, yet."

"Don' matter," Judging by the tone of Lizard's voice, it did matter. "Will eventually."

Jupiter was silent for a while, and Laura could picture him surveying his son with the all too familiar feeling of being x-rayed.

"Been thinkin' of findin' another one," The patriarch continued. "Not for you, boy," Laura could picture Lizard, stiffened in posture, " 'Haps for Cyst, or even Pluto. He ain't too dumb to figure that out."

Laura had a clear idea of just what Jupiter meant by 'another one'. She felt excited at the thought of another woman being present here, an outsider woman that, like herself, would know of life beyond the desert. In the same moment, her stomach twisted and she silently prayed that no other would come; not in selfish vain that she should remain the only outsider here, but because she wasn't sure how another would react if thrust into the same situation. She suddenly thought of Sarah, young Sarah, sister to Gord, and could not picture the girl killing anyone, let alone surviving here of all places. That was why she was dead, was it not?

"S'pose you're too stuck on the girl to think of tryin' another?" Jupiter's voice broke Laura out of her daze.

Lizard snarled, "Laura ain't goin' no where. Leave her."

"She don' have to leave. Keep her for whatever it is you keep her for; but grandchil'ren would be nice too."

"Don' want another," Lizard said shortly. Laura could have kissed him.

Jupiter sighed, before chuckling softly, "No, I s'pect not." He was silent for a moment. "She is a pretty lil' thing."

Lizard said nothing to this.

"Alright," said Jupiter, defeat evident in his tone. "I'll leave you be, but I want you to keep your eyes peeled for any other that might do for this family. Understand?"

"Yeah," said Lizard.

"Don' keep her waitin' then," The elder laughed. "I best be gettin' back to your mama."

Laura followed the sound of Jupiter's footsteps until the tell-tale creak of the screen door sounded, and she allowed her thoughts to wonder. She understood where Jupiter was coming from; she had long since known that the survival of the Family came first, that the Family was always first. And she sincerely wanted to do her part. She had once thought, long ago in her adolescent, that she would wait until her ticking biological clock deemed it necessary that she have a baby, before actually doing so. Now, at the age of twenty-one, she found she would love nothing more than to cradle a small life in her arms, a being that was part of both her and Lizard. She was grateful to be a part of the Family, but she wanted her own as well.

Lizard joined her not too long after. He dropped his usual weapons on the bedside table, and the vest slid from his shoulders with a slight rustling noise. He sidled up to her, arm wrapping around her now-tiny waist, head coming to rest in the nook between her cheek and shoulder in a gesture that was so familiar that, once again, Laura felt a rush of affection towards him. She turned in his arms, not able to see but able to visualize his startling blue eyes (the only pair in the Family) in the dark and whispered to him, "Don't be cruel to a heart that's true."

And he was anything but.

Later, when Laura was finally succumbing to the fog of sleep that settled on the edge of her mind, Lizard traced a knuckle over the bone structure of her cheek.

"He wasn't lyin' 'bout you being a pretty lil' thing." He said quietly.

Laura roused just enough to kiss him.

Nine months later, Mama gave birth to twins, the first in the Family. The girl, the stronger of the pair but with a misshapen, sloping head and a bulging eye, was named Venus; her brother, Mercury, second born and weaker, was a small creature with no real deformities except for grey skin and black eyes without irises.

Laura took to holding them, in turn, for hours at a time. She marvelled in their tiny arms, tiny feet, and wondered how such creatures could survive in such a place. And they did.


End file.
